Application of Virtual Prototyping for Evaluation of Intelligent Active Suspension System

This paper presents the application of virtual prototyping simulation for the evaluation of an intelligent vehicle active suspension system performance. In this approach, a full passenger car model is developed using the virtual prototyping approach. For this purpose, the suspension components as well as all systems that may affect the suspension performance, e.g. steering system, are precisely modeled using ADAMS software. In addition, a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is designed based on the quarter car model. The fuzzy controller parameters are then well tuned using genetic algorithm (GA). Finally, the optimized fuzzy-based active suspensions are implemented on the four car wheels on the virtual prototype model, and vehicle ride evaluation is performed using an interactive MATLAB-ADAMS approach. Finally, the simulation results are obtained to show the effectiveness of the approach where the bounce acceleration is reduced and the ride quality is improved.